Zulu people

President Jacob Zuma will take almost half his cabinet to Limpopo this week to monitor and evaluate the provincial government’s progress in delivering health services.

National health spokeswoman Zanele Mngadi yesterday confirmed that Zuma would visit Siloam Hospital in Thohoyandou and Lebowakgomo Hospital in Lebowakgomo outside Polokwane on Thursday.

“The president and his delegation are expected to interact with key roleplayers in the health sector, including patients, medical and traditional practitioners, and senior management, to see how the province has strengthened health system effectiveness,” Mngadi said.

Mngadi said Zuma would be accompanied by performance monitoring and evaluation minister Collins Chabane and his deputy, Dina Pule.

Other delegates include finance minister Pravin Gordhan, health minister Aaron Motsoaledi and his deputy Gwen Ramokgopa, Public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and social development minister Bathabile Dlamini.

“Among others, they are expected to look at maternal and child mortality rates, combating HIV/Aids and decreasing the burden of diseases like tuberculosis,” said Mngadi.

She said this visit was in line with national efforts to revamp the public health system through the implementation of the re-engineered Primary Health Care model.

Mngadi said six other hospitals and clinics in the province would also be evaluated. – AENS

The government this week announced a R375-million partnership with the United States foundation behind loveLife, the biggest national HIV-prevention programme for youth in the world. The US-based Kaiser Family Foundation has pledged R100-million a year for three years and the government R25-million a year. The foundation, which has been active in health programmes in South Africa for 13 years, was instrumental in the launching of loveLife in September 1999. The prime objective of loveLife is to reduce the rate of HIV infection among 15 to 20 year olds by at least 50 percent over five years. Drew Altman, the president of the foundation, and Manto Tshabala-Msimang, the health minister, signed a memorandum at a dinner in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The partnership will be ratified in three months with a formal, legally binding agreement. The move was lauded by Jacob Zuma, the deputy president, on Thursday when he announced the deal at the launch of a loveLife youth centre, known as a Y-centre, in Mandeni in KwaZulu-Natal. It was the seventh of 15 planned Y-centres to be launched since 1999. Zuma, who heads the South African National Aids Council, said that the partnership had been announced in the Mandeni area to highlight the government's serious concern about the scale and ferocity [with which] HIV-Aids is engulfing our rural communities and youth in those communities. (Source: The Sunday Independent, 21 July 2001)

The head of KwaZulu-Natal's HIV and AIDS directorate said there was a need to intensify its campaign among prostitutes at truck stops in the province in the light of shocking statistics revealed by a Medical Research Council survey.